1. Related Applications
There are no pending applications relating hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
2. Field of the Invention
My invention relates generally to carrying-type containers for skI equipment and more particularly to a flexible bag that covers the medial portion of a pair of skis with boots thereon and ski poles therebetween.
3. Description of Prior Art
The sport of skiing has developed through most of the world, in areas where it may be practiced, to a high degree of both popularity and sophistication. With this development, equipment for skiing has correspondingly sustained a similar developmental pattern with resulting complexity and higher equipment cost. This historicity has created a need for more functional carriers and protectors for skis and associated equipment. The instant invention seeks to fulfill this need by providing a flexible bag that covers, aids carrying and provides security for skis, boots and poles.
The particular elongate configuration of skis makes their containment and transport difficult and this difficulty increases if a container is to provide carrying means and also is to contain other ski related equipment. Secondarily, if skis are to be contained for storage or transport, it is quite desirable that the equipment be readily removable from the containment means so that those containment means do not unnecessarily take time from skiing activities. It is also desirable that the containment means be storable, with or without skis and associated apparatus, in some secure fashion to prevent theft, as the increased sophistication of skiing gear, with its attendant increased cost, has increased proportionately the potentiality of theft. The instant invention seeks to solve these problems.
Modern skiing equipment in general includes not only skis, but also boot harnesses on the skis, semi-rigid boots of quite specialized nature and configuration adapted to releasably fit in the boot harnesses, and ski poles. Various carriers for some or all of these items, both singly and in combinations, have heretofore become known. In general, ski boots have been carried in carriers that are separate and distinct from carriers for skis themselves, and ski poles have sometimes been carried in individual carriers, but more commonly in carriers designed principally for carriage of skis. These known carriers, that do not associate all three articles in a single containment and carriage device, are readily distinguishable from the instant invention which does provide simultaneous containment and carriage for all three items.
There also heretofore have been developed carriers for containment of an associated array of skis, boots and poles. These carriers, however, have generally been of a rigid nature and adapted particularly for air transport of skis and skiing apparatus by professional skiers. Such known devices generally have not positioned a pair of skis in side by side relationship for carriage and have not provided means for carrying ski boots in operative attached position on boot harnesses of the skis, as does the instant invention which allows compact containment and maintenance of these items in relationship for potential use without further assemblage.
My carrier bag further provides a releasably attached elongate strap which allows it to be supported over a skier's shoulder or pulled on the ground behind a skier, especially by releasing one end of the strap from the bag. Prior devices in general have not provided for either shoulder-type carriage or skid-type transport over a supporting surface. In general, aside from lack of a strap, prior containment and carriage devices often would not, by reason of their construction, have allowed such skidding-type transport at all.
My bag also provides a security device both for skiing apparatus carried in it and for the bag itself when it is being stored. The bag provides peripheral fastening elements through which the elongate strap may be laced to secure the containment bag from access. The strap may then be passed through or around some suitable object, such as a tree, post or part of a structure, and locked thereto so that neither the bag nor its contents may be surreptitiously removed from their pre-established position. The bag may be similarly fastened to some object after removal of ski gear and during periods of empty storage. Prior art devices in general have not provided means of securing either the bag itself or the bag and items carried therein from theft or pilferage, though the possibilities of these activities are ever present and have increased substantially in the present day, not only because of the increased cost and value of ski equipment, but also because of general deterioration of moral values and respect for the law in modern culture. It should be noted that the object to which the bag is secured may well be an automotive vehicle to allow use of my container bag as a security means during vehicular transport of ski equipment to and from skiing areas.
My invention does not reside in any one of these structures or features per se, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of them and the functions necessarily flowing therefrom as hereinafter further specified and claimed.